


Who Let This Kid Teach, Anyway?

by HorizontalSplash



Category: OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes
Genre: Caffeine, Canon-Typical Violence, Electrocution, Fighting, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, T.K.O. being T.K.O., Tags May Change, Teaching, no swearing but the closest i can get, rated teen just in case
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25719871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HorizontalSplash/pseuds/HorizontalSplash
Summary: T.K.O. growled and looked at the clock. “Okay then. Here’s the deal: the bell for next class is in 57 minutes—if you can beat me or convince me to stop fighting you before it goes off, you’ll get an automatic A and never have to come to this class again. If you can’t, you can’t ever complain about the fact that a nine-year-old is teaching you.”orT.K.O. teaches a class at P.O.I.N.T. Prep. Chaos ensues.(Officially on indefinite hiatus as of March 3, 2021 in order to work on more present projects)
Relationships: Foxtail & K.O. (OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 47





	1. Ready? Set. Fight!

K.O. didn’t know how he’d gotten here. Well, okay, he did—the course of events leading up to this point was kind of hard to miss. He just didn’t know how nobody thought at any point during said events that this might be a bad idea.

So here he was, sunk halfway into the largest, comfiest office chair he had ever seen, hood of his sweatshirt pulled over his head and futilely resisting being pushed into his turbonic form from sheer stress alone. To his back was an empty lecture hall that was far too big for the amount of students he was supposed to be teaching.

It didn’t matter if he was most qualified for the subject, how he was supposed to teach any group of students older than himself was still beyond him. There was no way any of them would take him seriously, he was only nine—

He felt a sudden rush of turbonic power and a sharp dip in awareness that left his head fuzzy and nerves tingling. K.O. shook his head and scrambled for his phone, looking for a distraction. There were fourteen notifications on his lock screen, all of which were from people wishing him good luck. He slumped farther into his chair, smiling. Maybe he wasn’t too sure about this, but everyone else was confident he’d be able to do it. That couldn’t mean nothing, right?

The classroom door slammed open.

K.O. jerked and dropped his phone into his lap, pulling his hood over his head. Part of his consciousness started to recede again. The last thing he needed right now was a personality change, but it looked like he didn’t have a choice if he wanted to do something about the energy that was building up inside of him. Taking an deep breath, he let it move from his chest to the rest of his body, studs sliding out of his wristbands and his headband burning away.

T.K.O. slipped his phone back into his pocket. Now that he wasn’t overwhelmed, he turned his attention to the loud conversation behind him.

“—had to spend all of last year in the conjuring course! It was terrible!” The student slammed something on their desk. “What’s the point in learning about energies and stuff if you can’t even use the information you’re being taught?”

Some of the turbonic energy receded to make space for K.O.’s personality. Oh, that must be either Ed or Fearn, Level 2 and Level 1 respectively. They were stuck in the conjuring course together last year while Foxtail was still trying to find a teacher for this course. According to Foxtail’s notes, this didn’t go well, and they weren’t able to use...practical application, which means that they weren’t good at summoning things, right? He double checked this on his phone. Yeah.

“I wonder who our teacher is,” one of them said. “Kind of makes you wonder what the big deal is about turbo power that they had to wait a whole year to find just the right person.”

Aaaaand T.K.O. can come back now, please and thank you.

“I thought they already had someone?” a warbling voice asked. So that must be Fearn—Foxtail had mentioned that they were bird-like. “They said that they just had to train them.”

“Ugh, that just leaves even more mystery! Why did they have to specially train someone when half the other classes just have some rando who generally knows their stuff teaching them?”

Fearn made a humming noise that sounded like ‘I don’t know.’

Ed of them tapped on his desk. “Maybe it’s really rare to specialize in it or something? We only have, what, eight people in this class, don’t we?”

“Seven,” Fearn corrected.

“Right. And here comes the third person now!” Something wooden creaked. “Hello, fellow classmate! Do you happen to know the abouts of our teacher?”

“Uh,” the student that just walked through the door said.

T.K.O. peeked out from behind his chair. Oh. Wood theme. That’s probably Larch. Her main power move is growing trees, right? That’s on-brand.

“I think that’s a no,” warbled Fearn.

“Look, I’m just here to learn. So I’m going to go sit now,” Probably-Larch said, pointing at the seats farther in the lecture hall.

“I get it, I get it,” Ed assured. “You don’t wish to share such secrets. It’s alright. We understand.”

“You do realize that we’ll find out who it is in seven minutes anyway?” whispered Fearn.

“Hush, I’m being dramatic.”

A door slammed open on the absurdly large balcony. The three students already in the classroom yelped—T.K.O. just groaned, remembering why he was dreading this. The new arrival gave a shrill laugh and sat down as loud as physically possible. Ed and Fearn scoffed and went back to their speculating. T.K.O. slumped farther into the giant chair, suddenly glad for its size.

Corn, these emotions were so embarrassing. He could beat these kids in a fight any day, and he was scared they wouldn’t, what, take him seriously?

Wait. I could beat them in a fight. That’s not—

BANG! The door to the balcony slammed open again. Only the other kid on the balcony screamed this time, but T.K.O. still has to resist the urge to ditch all of this and do something that didn’t make him want to tear his hair out. At least this person knew how to sit down without making a too much noise.

Thankfully, the next few minutes passed quietly. He ran his fingers over the spikes on his wristbands, constantly checking the clock that he swore was going too slow. The low conversation behind him lulled as it got closer to the beginning of class.

Exactly one minute before eight o’clock someone walked in, and everyone in the room went dead silent. T.K.O. was internally grateful that this at least gave him something on the student. Uncanny sense of time, possibly a reputation—that fits the description for Meta. He scrunched his nose. Didn’t think ae’d be able to tell the exact time, but why not, I guess.

The sound of the bell pierced through the room. T.K.O. jolted and curled in on himself. No, nope, there is no way I’m doing this. Why did I agree to this, why did Foxtail think this was good idea, why did anyone think this was a good idea—

Ed’s voice cut through his thoughts. “So do we not have a teacher, or what?”

“Maybe they’re late?” Probably-Larch responded, somewhat doubtfully. “We wouldn’t be put in this class if there wasn’t a teacher.”

T.K.O. took a deep breath. No. Focus. I’m in too deep already, I can’t back out now. Before he could change his mind, he grabbed hold of the desk and spun his chair around to face his doom. The incredibly small class stared back at him, mostly in confusion. He took another breath and did his best to rest his hands on the desk in front of him without breaking it.

“Are we gonna get this over with or what,” he said.

Silence bore over the room. Fearn cocked their head. “Huh?”

T.K.O. groaned. “Are we going to get this—”

“No, I know what you said,” they clarified, “I’m just confused as to why you would be saying it.”

“Why would I not.”

“Wait, wait,” Ed interrupted, standing up and pointing at him. “Are you...?”

“Yes. I’m your teacher.” T.K.O. grit out, ignoring the energy inside him that was continuing to build up. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Kind of, yeah!” someone yelled from the balcony above.

T.K.O. dug his claws into the desk. “And why is that?”

“You’re, like, twelve or something!”

That’s it. He climbed onto the desk. “You can all fight, right?”

Someone snorted. “Obvi’sly, kid, we didn’t get here off nothing.”

T.K.O. growled and looked at the clock. “Okay then. Here’s the deal: the bell for next class is in 57 minutes—if you can beat me or convince me to stop fighting you before it goes off, you’ll get an automatic A and never have to come to this class again. If you can’t, you can’t ever complain about the fact that a nine-year-old is teaching you.”

Ed barked out a laugh. “Oh, Corn, you’re only nine?” He wiped a tear away from his eye. White-hot energy flared through T.K.O. “I’d say I’d feel bad about fighting you, but there’s no way I’m being taught by a nine-year-old for the next four years.”

A feral smile spread across T.K.O.’s face. “No? So it’s a deal then?”

“I’ll take it, yeah.”

“Yo, me too! I’m not gonna be taught by some dumb kid!” yelled another student from the absurdly large balcony above.

A couple of other students voiced their agreement. T.K.O. stepped off of the desk and slowly stalked toward Ed. “Okay, then. Anyone object to that?”

No response.

“Neat. Good luck!”

Ed laughed and jumped up onto the back of a chair. “Like we’ll need any good luck—ACK!” A power fist sailed past his head. Fearn ducked behind the row of chairs. “What the he—” Another one grazed Ed’s shoulder. He shook his head and backed away, skillfully dodging each incoming blast. T.K.O. leapt onto the chairs as well, slowly backing him to the end of the row. Ed grinned. “One move isn’t gonna save you, kid,” he said, jumping at T.K.O. and tackling him to the floor.

T.K.O. briefly considered the fact that neither this student nor anyone else in this room had any idea who he was or what was going to happen in the next fifty-six minutes. Logically, fighting up to seven students at once should prove to be a problem at some point, and keeping some of that advantage would be beneficial in the long run, so simply throwing the student away from him would be the best solution.

However, this was still T.K.O., regardless of whether or not he had merged with his other half. And T.K.O. didn’t care about any of that right now.

So, naturally, he kicked the boy into the ceiling.

Nobody reacted well—more than one person yelled, someone was about to fall off the balcony gaping Ed, and Probably-Larch was sneaking toward the door. Fearn, who had been cowering moments ago, whipped their head towards him and screeched (which T.K.O. thought was uncalled for, but they were a bird, so he guessed it made sense) and launched themself at him. T.K.O. ducked, and Fearn went sprawling onto the chairs.

The kid that was about to fall off the balcony (T.K.O. swore his name was something like Raincheck but botched twelve ways Saturday) came at him next; in fact, he fell off the balcony to get to him, whipping energy blasts from his arms, which also appeared to be made of energy. T.K.O. rolled under the blasts and slammed into the boy with a flying leap. The two went tumbling between a row of chairs, both trying to wrestle the other to the ground. Raincheck managed to get a grip on T.K.O.’s hair and slammed his head into the floor.

“You’re not gonna beat me that—” the student started, quickly being cut of as T.K.O. kicked him across the room and sent him careening into Fearn, who was just starting to pull themself to their feet. T.K.O. walked over to the two, ignoring the throbbing pain in the back of his head and summoning a power fist. Fearn looked up at him in fear—or maybe that was just what their eyes looked like, it wasn’t like T.K.O. had looked at their face much. They quickly glanced behind him, then back at T.K.O.

T.K.O. sighed. He jumped into the air as a giant tree burst from the ground where he had been standing and tangled the students in branches. Definitely-Larch gaped up at him from the base of the tree.

He grinned, about to summon another power fist, when someone tackled him from behind. The two of them went tumbling mid-air. T.K.O. grappled with whoever had decided it was a good idea to throw themself at him—Ed glared back at him, apparently having not appreciated his free ticket into the ceiling. He tried to grab T.K.O.’s face, but T.K.O. flung him into the wall, cracking it under the force of his throw. Ed fell just short of the teacher’s desk, groaning.

T.K.O. floated back down to the floor, taking his time to observe the room. Ed was out for now, Larch seemed content to keep her distance, and Fearn and Raincheck-Energy-Dude were still struggling to detangle themselves from each other and the branches encasing them. The two remaining older students stared down at him from the balconies, unmoving.

“Has anyone ever told you that your teamwork sucks?” T.K.O. asked, walking over to where Ed was. The boy sat up, groaned, and collapsed onto the ground again. “Because it does.”

Ed tried for a smile. “Uh, you said we could convince you to stop fighting, right? Could you do that? Stop fighting?”

“No.” He placed a foot on Ed’s chest and raised a fist.

A wall of muscle slammed into T.K.O. as yet another student decided tackling him was a good idea. It sent both him and the student who jumped on him tumbling into the hallway. The student—augh, what was her name? Br—Brawn-something? Regardless of what her name actually was, the Goddess of Bodybuilders captured him in an iron-tight grip and nearly crushed his ribs. He thrashed, but she held him fast.

“Yeah, Bronya!” someone yelled from inside the classroom. “Shut him down!”

Like he was gonna be outmuscled.

He rammed his elbows into her ribs, making her yelp and loosen her grip. T.K.O. rolled away, landing in a crouch, and let electricity pool around his fists as Bronya pulled herself up. Her face morphed from confusion, to shock, to anger, before she threw herself at him once more. T.K.O. met her head on, sending a shock through her that made his hair stand on end and sent her flying down the hallway.

He sighed again. How long had it been by now? Five minutes? Ten?

A feathery dart whizzed past his head. He turned around and sidestepped. Fearn continued to send a barrage of attacks at him, poorly created and seemingly thrown at random. T.K.O. ducked, then sidestepped again, jumped, sidestepped again, ducked, took Raincheck’s stronger energy blasts into account as he joined the fight, ducked as those started blowing the darts apart, and finally counterattacked, zapping Fearn.

They collapsed. Raincheck backed away and fell into a fighting stance, trembling. Sparks zipped between T.K.O.’s fingers. “This has got to be one of the most boring fights I’ve ever had.”

Raincheck didn’t respond.

“I mean, usually I wouldn’t mind an easy fight, but I can’t even go all out right now and you’re going down like flies to a swatter! It’s pathetic.”

“It’s not pathetic!” Raincheck yelled. “You—you’re pathetic! You—you—” he stopped as more sparks flew off of T.K.O. “Um.”

T.K.O. slammed a fist into his face. He stumbled back, the energy that made up most of his body flickering and receding into the metal frame that made up his head and chest. It clattered onto the floor.

Silence overtook the hallway. T.K.O. quickly took stock of who was left—Bronya was crouched a little ways away, jittering, and Larch was helping Ed stand. He didn’t know where Meta was, but ae should still be in the classroom. No one made a move to fight him.

He strode toward Bronya. She glared up at him, eyes narrowing, but otherwise didn’t move. More electricity raced to T.K.O.’s fists. She winced.

“What, you don’t want that again?” T.K.O. dissipated the energy. “You know the alternative isn’t much better, right?”

“Whatev’r,” she muttered.

T.K.O. went to put a hand on her head, but she bit down on it. Hard. He yelped and ripped it away from her mouth. She stood easily, guffawing, completely opposite to how she was acting only five seconds before. “Don’ underestimate me, kid.”

Any tolerance T.K.O. might have had for her disappeared. A ball of disempowerment energy formed in his injured palm. “Okay.”

“Is that supposed to be a threat, or—” The blast hit her, and she fell to the ground, unconscious.

Someone swore behind him. T.K.O. whipped around; Larch was staring at him, wide-eyed, while Ed leaned most of his weight on her. Ed started lobbing mushroom-shaped energy blasts at T.K.O., but Larch pinned his arm down and whispered something to him. He made a weird face.

Larch cleared her throat and asked, voice trembling, “Is there any chance we can surrender?”

T.K.O.’s mind went blank. “What—?”

Wood erupted from the ground in front of her. It shot around him, anchoring into the ceiling and blocking escape from all sides. Larch ran over and looked at him through the thick branches. “Good, I got him this time.” She laughed. “I was starting to get worried we’d be knocked out before we could take him down.”

Ed responded, but T.K.O. wasn’t listening. He summoned fire in his hand and put it up to the branch. It caught. Larch whipped her head around at the sound of crackling and made a noise similar to the sound a cat would make if you dropped it in a cold bathtub. The branches burned away quickly, and T.K.O. put the fire out with a wave of his hand.

Larch backed away, frantically checking for exits. “I should have seen that coming.”

He stepped toward her. “Yeah.”

“...Are you going to knock me out now?”

“Are you going to let me?”

She scrunched up her face and bolted, so that was probably a ‘no.’ T.K.O. shot a burst of electricity at her anyway.

Ed looked up at him, apparently having pulled himself some ways down the hallway. “Are you going to knock me out too?”

“Yep.”

He swore and flopped onto the ground melodramatically. “Just make it quick.”

T.K.O. raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”

“What else could I possibly have to say?”

“You were the first one to agree to my terms. I’d think you’d put up more of a fight.”

Ed spluttered. “Wha—Of course I’m not gonna put up a fight! I didn’t think there would even be a fight!” He stuck out his tongue. “You’re nine, there’s no way you should have been able to beat all of us!”

“You shouldn’t have assumed I couldn’t,” T.K.O. said, and he took what little energy Ed had left.

T.K.O. stood up. That was was everyone, bar Meta and the seventh student that hadn’t shown up yet. One more to go, and one more to wait on. Yippee.

He turned back to the classroom, made eye contact with Foxtail, and froze. She stood over Larch’s unconscious body, pointing at it and and raising her eyebrows at him.

“I can explain,” T.K.O. said.

Foxtail looked back down at the body. “You could have at least not left them on the floor.”

“I was busy!”

“Right, right.”

One of Foxtail’s students peeked out of her classroom. “Foxtail, what’s—” They spotted the students littering the floor. “Uh.”

Foxtail waved them off. “Don’t worry ‘bout it.”

“O—okay? I’ll just...wait, then.” They ducked back into the classroom.

Foxtail looked back down at the unconscious students. “It’s a good thing it’s last period.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want help bringing them back inside?”

T.K.O. rubbed the back of his neck. “Nah. I’ll take care of it.”

“Really? Alright, then. I’ll leave you to that,” she said, turning heel and walking back into her classroom. “And try not to make as much of a mess next time!” she added, gesturing at the burnt remains of the tree. He whipped his head to it and back, about to protest, but she was already gone.

T.K.O. deflated and threw Ed and Larch over his shoulders. He’d dragged himself halfway to the classroom door when someone came around the corner, spotted him and the students lying everywhere, came to a logical conclusion, and jumped at him. Which, to be fair, would have been a great reaction, if not for the fact that he was carrying two of said students.

He teleported into the classroom, dropped the students into the first two chairs he could find, and whirled around, grabbing the student by the tail and smashing them into the ground.

“You’re late,” he growled.

His seventh student, who he rather predictably couldn’t remember the name of, scrunched her nose. “Yeah? Why do you care?”

“I’m your teacher.”

She laughed. “No, you’re not—you’re a kid.”

T.K.O. snarled involuntarily. “You’re all idiots.” Fire curled around his body. “So what if I’m a kid? I took all of them down, and you’re doubting me for that one thing? I am your teacher, and all of this”—he gestured at the room and unconscious students—“should prove that my age doesn’t matter. Nothing matters if you opponent knows how to fight better than you, especially if it’s to the point where they can take you out of a fight before it starts.”

“Well, you didn’t take out Meta, so you can’t be that good,” she said, pointing behind him.

T.K.O. turned on his heel. Meta was behind him, arm outstretched in a way that indicated ae was about to strike a pressure point.

“Could you not have said anything else,” Meta deadpanned.

“Uh—”

“Whatever. Fight him, please. I will guide you.”

“I don’t need your guidance—”

“Duck.”

She ducked underneath T.K.O.’s flaming fist. T.K.O. pulled back, shot into the air, and sent a torrent of power fists at her. She dodged according to Meta’s every word. T.K.O. twisted upside down, sent a stray blast at Meta, and hit aer dead in the chest. Ae fell, bashing aer head on the floor and passing out cold.

Huh. That was easy.

He landed on the final, now panicked student’s shoulders. She pulled on his arm in a desperate attempt to get him off, but it wasn’t enough to stop him from zapping her into unconsciousness. T.K.O. flipped off of her and looked around at his now dead-to-the-world class.

He pulled out his phone. 8:28? That really took twenty-five whole minutes? That’s longer than it should’ve been. T.K.O. shoved the offending object back into his pocket and continued hauling the students back into the classroom.

———

T.K.O. looked out over the lecture hall from the balcony railing. All things considered, he thought the class had gone pretty well—he’d gotten the message across to his students, all of which were now wrapped in blankets at the front of the hall, still unconscious. Foxtail wasn’t mad at him, which was always a good thing. The only thing he maybe could have done better was get some teaching in, but hey, it wasn’t like they hadn’t learned anything!

He sighed, long and dramatic, and looked at the clock again. Five minutes left. T.K.O. groaned, longer and more dramatic. He hopped up and paced his way across the railing. If there was one thing that he’d done completely wrong today, it was putting himself in a position where he had to wait for the students to wake up. He’d already gone through a pot of spaghetti, two mugs of cocoa, and an entire training room, but even after all of that, none of the students were considerate enough to wake up. It crossed his mind that K.O. would have been concerned by it, but T.K.O. couldn’t bring himself to regard them with anything other than mild annoyance.

There was a disgruntled noise and some shifting from below. Finally, one of them was waking up.

Ed pried himself off of the chair and threw away the blanket, clutching his head. He looked around, seemingly trying to figure out what was going on. T.K.O. let out a guttural sound from the back of his throat. The boy’s head shot up in alarm.

“Took you long enough.” T.K.O. grit out. “I had to wait half an hour for you to wake up. Do you know how hard it is to wait half an hour? Huh?!”

Ed blinked at him, then turned to blink at the clock. “I‘ve got three minutes left?”

“Class ends in three minutes, yes,” T.K.O. sighed, dragging his hands down his face.

“Mmn. I could beat you in three minutes.”

T.K.O. looked him up and down. “Did you hit your head, or are you actually that stubborn?”

“You just got lucky,” he said, dragging himself forward.

“No, I didn’t.” T.K.O. jumped off of the balcony, landing right in front of Ed. He stumbled back, but T.K.O. caught him by his tie and steadied him. “I beat you because I know how to twist a fight to my advantage, and even if I don’t, I can hold out for long enough to figure it out. That’s why I’m teaching you.” He let go of him, walking around him as he fell onto the floor, and muttered, “Cob, this is going to be a long year.”

“What—but—” Ed said, floundering for words. “But you’re nine!”

T.K.O. turned around, five seconds from throwing hands again, but the bell sounding through the room stopped him. Ed startled. T.K.O. simply looked up at the ringing intercom, a wide grin stretching across his face. He glanced back down at Ed, whose own face was slowly being overtaken with horror. “Yeah?” T.K.O. said, stifling a laugh. “And what do you have to say about it?”

Ed gaped at him. “No. No, no, no, that can’t be it.”

T.K.O. shot a rude gesture at him and skipped over to the exit. “See you next week, Mushroom Man!”

He slammed the door and scurried into the crowded hallway, but he could hear Ed’s protests even through all the clamor. T.K.O. snickered and twisted through the students, the turbo energy that had been running through his system for the past hour settling more and more the farther he got from the classroom.

K.O. spotted Foxtail at the end of the hallway. He gasped and ran up to her, scrambling onto her shoulders. She smiled up at him. “Hey, Sugarcube! First day treat you well?”

“Yeah! I mean, it went as well as it could,” K.O. said. “I think I got through to them, at least.” He rubbed his neck as Foxtail removed him from her shoulders. “You know what happened, for the most part.”

“Right. You took care of the students?”

“Yeah, they’re—” He blinked. “Oh. Most of them are still knocked out.”

Foxtail set him down. “Well, how ‘bout we go make sure there isn’t any trouble there, and I’ll show you where the medical room is, since you’ll clearly be needing it in the near future.”

“It’s not like I’m going to be doing anything like that again.” Foxtail raised an eyebrow. K.O. pouted, hanging his head. “Okay, fine, that would be good to know, just in case.”

Foxtail grinned and offered him her hand. He took it. “That’s what I like to hear. Now, do you know how to do a fireman’s carry, or do you want me to show you?”


	2. Caffeine for the Soul

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> T.K.O. attempts to do his job.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess I’m doing this, huh. 
> 
> This chapter’s a bit shorter, but I hope you enjoy it!

A week passed. Doctor Greyman and Professor Sunshine helped K.O. catch up on his homework, which involved more snacks than K.O. thought was possible, and the rest of his schoolwork was finished without a hitch. Everything else that happened that week was normal, too: Boxman attacked the plaza, Mr. Gar gave him secret missions, and he scrubbed every speck of filth from the bodega floor and ceiling. It was all fine and dandy.

That is, until Friday, when he had to teach another class.

Foxtail found him in the teacher’s lounge, his face shoved into a pillow. She sat down on the couch beside him and took a long sip of coffee. K.O. peeked up at her.

“Bad day?” she asked.

K.O. shoved his face back into the pillow.

“Wanna talk about it?”

He groaned and curled into a ball. “I’m just...nervous.”

“About teaching?”

K.O. nodded. “I think I messed up. You know, with fighting the students. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Really? I thought it was a good idea.”

“You did?” He clutched the pillow tighter. “But I hurt them.”

“They’re training to be heroes. They’re going to get hurt.”

“Still.”

Foxtail shrugged, putting down her mug. “It’s not like there was any other way to get through to them. That’s one of the most stubborn groups of students you’re gonna get.” She barked out a laugh. “Might be the only thing they all have in common, being stubborn. Other than specializing in turbonic energy, of course.”

“So they aren’t going to hate me for beating them up?”

“If they hate you, that’s their fault, not yours.” She ruffled his hair. “Besides, some of them like fighting. It’s not a big deal.”

“Righ...Right,” K.O. said, nodding and standing up. He strode toward the door. “Okay, no problem. I can do this. I can teach another class.”

“Energy Specialization classes are in three hours.”

K.O. deflated. Foxtail sighed, picked him up, wrapped him in a fluffy blanket, and put him back on the couch. She wandered over to the coffee machine. “You want anything? Coffee? Hot cocoa? Juice?”

“Mmn.” K.O. got up and trailed behind her, blanket draped over his shoulders. “Juice sounds good.”

“Really? Nothing caffeinated? You look...well.” She gestured at his general being. “A little tired.”

K.O. shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Hm. Well, there’s juice in the refrigerator over there.”

K.O. followed her finger. He opened the fridge, a cold blast of air hitting him and making him pull the blanket tighter around his shoulders. Right in the center of the fridge stood a box of apple juice in all of its ethereal glory. K.O. shielded his eyes and grabbed it, closing the door with his foot.

Foxtail patted the spot beside her on the couch. He plopped down and grabbed another pillow to hug. They both took long sips of their chosen beverages.

“Shouldn’t you be teaching right now?” K.O. asked, breaking the silence.

Foxtail shook her head. “I don’t teach until later, either.”

“Oh. Okay.” He paused, taking another sip of juice. “So I can stay here? I didn’t—” he broke off, yawning. “Mmn...exactly ask to come in here in the first place.”

“You’re a teacher, K.O. You can be in the teacher’s room if you want to be.”

“Huh? Oh...oh!” K.O. giggled. “I keep forgetting about that.”

Foxtail let out a chuckle herself. K.O. leaned against her, going to drink again, only to be met with the sound of his straw sucking up empty air. He groaned, mumbled something so indecipherable that even he didn’t understand it, and put the box on the coffee table in front of him.

“Do you want to take a nap?” Foxtail asked as he yawned again and stretched his arms. “You have time.”

“Mrmn, nah, I’ll...You said there was coffee?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. You want some?”

“Mm, yeah. Coffee.” He yawned again. “Great for keeping people awake. That’s good.”

“Alright, then. Let’s get you some coffee.”

———

On the bright side, it did keep him awake. However, the not so bright side was also that it kept him awake. Very awake. Absolute awake-ness. Lots of being awake. Sleep was no longer a concept.

It also meant that K.O. had been pacing in front of the third floor doors of the lecture hall for ten minutes because he thought it would be a good idea to get to class early, and his worries from earlier decided the best time to pop back into his head was when his hand was on the door handle. And because of his energy, he sure wasn’t standing still while stewing in his own emotional soup.

He should’ve taken Foxtail up on that nap.

Footsteps echoed through the hallway behind him. K.O. glanced back; Meta was slowly but steadily making aer way toward him. K.O. jolted, turbonic energy flooding his system, and jumped around a corner just in time for T.K.O. to fully emerge. Meta didn’t appear to notice or care about his presence and subsequent lack of presence. Ae entered the lecture hall without any acknowledgement that he was even there.

T.K.O. crept back around the corner. The doors didn’t look any more inviting than before, but at least he knew that some of the students had decided to come. It’s not like coming to class was part of the deal, he thought.

That...would’ve been a good thing to add, actually. Hindsight really is 20/20.

He huffed and paused, regarding the door with narrowed eyes. Meta came in a minute before class last week. What are the chances...?

T.K.O. backed up, aligning himself, and kicked the door open at the exact moment the bell rang. He stumbled forward as gracefully as he could, jumped onto the railing, and yelled, “Are you people ready to learn?!” The door slammed behind him, and six heads swiveled toward him. “You’d better be, ‘cause it’s eight o’clock, you’re here, I’m here, and I’ve only got twenty-four more classes to cram as much information as I can down your throats!”

Down on the first floor, Ed raised a hand. “That’s kind of violent, sir.”

“Get used to it. Also, never call me that again.” T.K.O. leapt over the second-floor balcony and rolled down the middle aisle on the first floor, popping up in front of his desk. He leaned against it. “I’m T.K.O. If you need to call me something, call me by my name.”

Larch raised her hand.

“What.”

“Are you going to fight us again?” she said.

“Not unless you really annoy me. I’d actually like to get something done today.” He drummed his fingers against the side of the desk. “So, uh, what do you people know about turbonic energy?”

He was met with silence.

“You don’t know anything, do you.” T.K.O. rolled his shoulders and stepped forward. “Cob, okay. We’ll start from the beginning.”

He raised a hand in front of him, summoning a purple flame in his palm. “This is turbonic energy. It usually acts as a booster of sorts, but it can also be used to create energy blasts such as this and allow whoever uses it to float.”

Larch raised her hand again.

“...What.”

She lowered her hand. “How do any of those abilities correlate?”

“I don’t know. I’m not a scientist.”

“But then...You do know why it’s all considered one type of energy, don’t you?”

T.K.O. groaned. “Well—”

The first-floor door slammed open, and in tumbled the same student who had shown up in the middle of class last time. She shut the door behind her, wheezing and smoke visibly drifting off of her.

“You’re late,” T.K.O. pointed out. “Again.”

“Sorry Professor,” she said mockingly, sending heat rushing to T.K.O.’s face, “it’s kind of hard to get to class when you’re being chased by a bunch of teachers because ‘she looked at me wrong’ isn’t enough of a reason to get into a fight.”

T.K.O. clenched his fist, letting the flame in his palm envelop his hand. He sneered. “Right. I don’t care. But don’t call me that. Ever again.”

The student raised an eyebrow. “Huh? What, Professor?”

“Yes. That.”

“Cob, okay.” She threw her hands up. “Whatever.”

She sulked over to a seat as T.K.O. struggled to regain his composure. He dispelled the flame with a flick of his wrist, but the amount of energy in his system was still overwhelming. Also, for some uncobly reason, his heart rate would not slow down, which he probably would have noticed earlier if he hadn’t been freaking out for the past three hours.

He really should’ve taken Foxtail up on that nap.

T.K.O. ran a hand through his hair and forced a smile that most definitely didn’t look like a smile. “As I was saying, turbo energy is—”

“Hey, hey, teach?” Raincheck yelled, leaning over the balcony and waving his bright blue arms at T.K.O. “You’ve been saying turbonic energy for a bit, and now you’re calling it turbo energy! Why are you doing that?”

T.K.O. could feel his soul trying to leave his body. “Turbo’s just...a shorter version of it.”

“Really?” Raincheck frowned and tapped his chin. “That’s stupid.”

He grin his teeth. “Yeah, well, that’s how it works. Turbonic’s the more correct form, I guess, but most people don’t even talk about the energy separately, since it’s—”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Ed said, lazily lifting a hand after he’d already started talking, “separate from what?”

“Wha—ugh, I was going to explain that!” T.K.O. pulled at his hair. “How many times are you people gonna interrupt me, huh? I’m trying to help you! Do you want to learn? Are you all idiots? Do you even know why I had you fight me last week?! That was kind of important! Or did you think it was just a meaningless assertion of dominance?!”

“It wasn’t?” Ed asked. T.K.O. stared at him, breathing hard. “It really seemed like it was—”

“Yes! It was!” T.K.O. shouted. Electricity crackled across his skin. Everyone leaned back, eyes wide. “That’s what I just said! Now can you shut up for five minutes while I explain?!”

He was met with silence. T.K.O. shook out his trembling hands and leaned against the desk behind him. “Yeah. I fought you because I knew you weren’t going to take me seriously. Obviously. There’s not much of a point in teaching a class if no one will listen to you.” He gave a pointed look at Ed, who shrunk back, and Raincheck, who scoffed and looked away. “But that wasn’t the only reason. The information you would have needed to win that fight is the information I’m trying to teach you. If you’d won that fight, there wouldn’t be any point in you taking this class, because you would already know that information.” T.K.O. paused. “But you didn’t. And you don’t know anything.

“I know you’re confused and upset that I’m the one teaching you. You’re not good at hiding it. And it’s not like I can even blame you—you had to wait a year for this, and your teacher is a nine-year-old!” He waved his hands around mockingly. “How sad! But you’re behind all of your friends now, and I do actually know what I’m doing, despite what you might think. So, are you going to actually pay attention to what I have to say and rise above everyone else, or are you going to go back to your old classes? I heard they were a reeeal blast.” He gestured to his left. “The door is right there. If you’d rather go back, I’m not going to stop you.”

Ed and Fearn glanced at each other, then back at T.K.O. Raincheck stopped leaning on the railing. Bronya stood up from her place in the back and slung her bag over her shoulder. T.K.O. watched, silent, as she walked up to the front and slammed her hands on the desk, leaning in close to him.

“Y’ said y’ can float?” she whispered.

T.K.O. blinked. “Uh, yeah?”

“So I’ll learn that. If I stay.”

“Among other things...yes.”

She straightened, nodded, and plopped down into a seat in the front row. Everyone stared at her, T.K.O. included. She eyed them. “What’re you lookin’ at?”

Larch shook her head. “Will we be allowed to ask questions?”

“As long as aren’t mocking, sure,” T.K.O. said. “This is a class. You’re supposed to, like, ask for clarification and stuff.”

“Okay, cool.” She nodded. “Nice.”

Ed sighed and slammed his hands on his desk. “Well, I’m definitely not going back to the conjuring course. That sucked.”

“I second that,” Fearn said.

Meta stood up on the third floor. “I, for one, am staying due to the intrigue that comes from such an unknown energy and the possible experience that could come from being taught by a literal child—”

“Stop.”

“Are you not a child?”

“I will eviscerate you,” T.K.O. said.

Ae paused. “Really?”

“Do you want to find out?”

Ae started at him for a moment, then somewhat hastily took a seat. He did not want to think about the implications of that.

The student he still didn’t know the name of rolled her eyes and leaned over the back of her seat. “Dang, you all have actual reasons and stuff. I’m just here ‘cause it’s the only class that’s ever had a fight in it.”

T.K.O. squinted at her. “You’ve never fought in any other classes?”

“No.”

“...Why?”

“I don’t know, safety?”

He looked out into the metaphorical abyss and muttered, “What even is this school.”

“Terrible.”

No one else spoke. T.K.O. took a deep breath. “Okay, I’ll assume Raincheck is staying, since he has a very easy exit and hasn’t left yet.”

“My name is Rivejek!”

“...That’s just a key-smash with vowels, but alright.”

Rivejek spluttered. T.K.O. sighed and flipped over the desk and into the huge chair behind it. “Okay, great. Now that we’re done with that, can I teach now?” No one answered. “Good. Does anyone want to guess why turbo energy is considered one type of energy, or do you want me to show you?”

———

The class passed slowly. Apparently he kept explaining things as if they were very obvious, which they were, but not to the students. That was kind of the point of teaching. Because of this, despite agreeing to listen to him, the students still had to ask for clarification twenty times. It was kind of annoying, but he was more distracted by the increasingly present lure of sleep.

The bell rang right after he finished explaining what kinds of powers turbonic energy could amplify. Everyone left the classroom as soon as possible, bar Larch, who he had to wave off. T.K.O. heaved himself into a sitting position and hopped out of the chair, dragging himself into the almost-empty hallway.

He floated down to the teacher’s lounge. A few students passed, but he was too out of it to care. Thankfully, the lounge door was wide open, its warm cream walls and the faint scent of cocoa calling to him. Foxtail was on the couch, holding a mug.

“You’re really teaching your classes as T.K.O., huh?” she said, her voice barely reaching him through the fog in his mind.

T.K.O. grunted a reply and flopped down onto the couch face-first. He distantly registered a gasp and the unmistakable feeling of a soft hand stroking his hair, but he was out before he could even think to protest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I just wanted to say that I’ve been really stressed out by this fic for the past couple of days due to the huge amount of chapters I had planned and the time it would take to write all of them. I’m not anymore, and that’s mostly because I realized that a lot of those chapters would be unnecessary filler and didn’t need to be written anyway. So, yeah...this fic will be shorter than I originally thought, but it’ll be a better shorter. Less stress and less pointless filler. Granted, it’ll still be pretty lengthy, but it won’t be 78 chapters, which was what it was originally going to be. (You can imagine why I might have been stressed by that, since I also have school, other fan-stuff, my own projects, and general life on my plate.) I’ll update the chapter number once I actually figure out exactly how many I’m doing.


	3. S om ethi ng ’s  N ot  Qu it e  Ri ght

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something’s wrong.

_Focus. It’s fine. Just breathe and focus,_ K.O. thought as he paced around the teacher’s lounge, his arms wrapped around his shoulders and his eyes locked on the beige tile he should have worn a dent into by now. _Focus. Does counting help you focus? I think I saw that somewhere—_

Static snuck into his vision, and he felt himself fall, his stomach dropping. Panic spiked in his chest and prickled through his limbs. He caught himself, pulling himself back up, but he felt like he was dragging a few tons worth of wired along behind him. They hummed with a barely noticeable energy.

K.O. was lying on the floor. Cold tile pressed against his cheek. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, pulling himself up with the help of a stray table. _Okay. That was weird._

His vision was still off. K.O. shook his head and immediately regretted it as every sense proceeded to get worse. He felt himself fall again, but he could feel his hands firm against the table and the cold tile under his feet.

“Oh!” K.O. jolted and whirled around, gray static streaking across the room. Foxtail was standing in the doorway, looking frazzled. She stepped forward and grabbed a folder off of a nearby desk. “What are you doing here, Sugarcube? You know class is starting in three minutes, right?”

K.O. blinked slowly, processing. “It is?” He gulped. “H—huh. Okay. I should get going, then.”

He stepped toward the door, but Foxtail blocked his way with her hand. “Um? Foxtail?”

“Are you okay, K.O.? You seem...” she paused, looking him up and down “...off.”

“What? I’m fine.” There was another sharp pull at his consciousness. He shook his head, blinking black spots out of his vision. “I feel a little weird, but that’s all. It’s not a big deal.”

“Okay...” She hesitantly removed her hand from his path. K.O. attempted a quick escape from her over-observant gaze, but she caught the hood of his sweatshirt and pulled him back an inch. “Tell me if it’s still bothering you after class, okay?”

“I’m fine, Foxtail.”

She made an expression K.O. couldn’t read, then sighed and let him go. “If you insist.”

———

K.O. sprinted to the lecture hall, his feet barely touching the floor. He skidded to a halt and leaned on the door frame, catching his breath and blinking the spots out of his eyes that refused to go away. The bell should be going off any minute now, and he still couldn’t think, still couldn’t see right, and still couldn’t stop feeling like he was falling every ten seconds, but it would be fine. Once class started, he would be too caught up in it to notice all of that. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and focused on shifting T.K.O.’s personality to the front.

Nothing happened.

His eyes shot open. _Nothing happened?_

He bit his lip, looking at the classroom door, before pausing and running his tongue over his teeth.

_No fangs. Okay, this is officially_ really _weird._

There was another tug at his consciousness, making K.O. feel like the floor was yanked out from under him. K.O. jolted, an idea coming to him in a stroke of naive inspiration. He grabbed hold of the sensation and flipped it around to the best of his ability, sending a wave of dizziness through him and accidentally slamming his head against the doorframe.

A close approximation of T.K.O. grunted and rubbed his head. Pins and needles raced through his limbs and his vision was almost blurry enough that he couldn’t see, but he was T.K.O., and that was what mattered. He started to reach for the door handle before stopping mid-movement and squinting at his wristbands that were definitely not the right color.

He groaned. Another problem to deal with was not what he needed right now.

The bell rang. T.K.O. shook his head and decided that it didn’t probably didn’t matter. He had a class to teach. Again.

_It’s only been two weeks and it already feels like six months, how am I supposed to do this for that long?_ He turned the doorknob, immediately tripped over his own feet, and fell on his face.

“Um, T.K.O.?” someone called out. “Is something wrong?”

“Is this just the lesson? You lying on the ground? Should we lie on the ground too?” Soft footsteps padded over to him, followed by a loud thump right next to him. Something brushed against his face. T.K.O.’s cheek twitched, but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything else. “You know, this isn’t half bad.”

The room went quiet as someone else hurried over to him, their shoes clacking on the wooden floor. Whoever had laid down beside him sat up. Slender arms lifted him into the air and held him there. He batted at them, but whoever it was was too far away to be affected.

“Something is wrong,” they said. “I cannot see him responding to anything anytime in the near future. We should seek the help of another teacher.”

“I’ll go get Foxtail. She’s right next door.”

“That would—” T.K.O. bit into his captor’s arm. “Well. Never mind. You responded to something I said but not being kicked?”

“Wha?” T.K.O. mumbled, looking up. Meta’s six pure blue eyes stared back at him, narrowed. “No, no, ‘m fine. ‘S just...”

“Right.” Meta said. “Ed, you go retrieve Foxtail. The child is clearly not in any condition to be teaching at the present moment and needs help as soon as possible.”

Energy suddenly flickered to life in T.K.O.’s chest. It was thick and stuffy, and he felt like all of his organs had caught fire, but it wasn’t something he’d take for granted. He pushed his way out of Meta’s grip and fell to the floor, catching himself before he face-planted on the ground again. Meta and Ed looked at him in shock as he floated over to the huge office chair and slumped down into it.

T.K.O. gestured to the many chairs in the room. “I’m fine. Take a seat already.”

Ed and Meta gave each other a confused look, but sat down in the closest chairs regardless of their obvious concern.

“Now that you know the very basics, how about we go over how to activate a turbonic form? Any guesses? No? Great. They can be activated in more than one way, obviously, but natural forms are usually activated by feelings of uselessness, which also has to do with how they gather energy...” he rambled on, ignoring the static lingering in the corners of his vision.

———

“—we go turbo?”

T.K.O. snapped back to reality. “What?”

Larch cleared her throat. “I said, ‘If we’re ever in a life-threatening situation, will we go turbo?’”

“Oh. Not necessarily. It depends on whether that would make you feel useless enough.” T.K.O. ran his fingers over the surface of the table—it sent pins and needles up his arm. He winced and shook his hand out. “It’s complicated.”

“Interesting.” T.K.O. could make out a slight movement from Ed. “Care to explain that?”

T.K.O. ran his hands down his face, but he proceeded to explain.

———

“So you’re telling me...”

“Yes.”

“...that if I insult you...”

“Yes, Mushroom Man.”

“...then you’ll—hold up, is _that_ supposed to be an insult?”

“Obviously.”

“How?!”

T.K.O. huffed. “Do you want me to explain it?”

“Yes, actually! I would!”

———

“—and that’s how Mushroom Man is the insult of the century.”

Ed sat in silence for a moment before saying in a subdued voice, “I didn’t think he’d have an actual explanation.”

“That _was_ pretty harsh,” Fearn agreed.

“But it’s true.” Most of his vision was gone at this point, but he could still see enough to see Ed slide down his chair and onto the floor in tandem with a high whine. T.K.O. stood and leaned on the desk. “Are we gonna get back on topic or what?”

“Anything to end this pain,” Ed said.

“Whatever you say, Mushroom Man.”

———

T.K.O. couldn’t see anything. He was sure the bell had rung already, but he couldn’t bring himself to get out of the chair.

“Teach? I mean...T.K.O.?” said a voice in front of him. “Are you alright?”

He squinted up at the student, unable to focus. It was probably Larch. She was the only one that ever stayed after class. “You can go,” T.K.O. said, dismissing her.

“Not until I know you’re alright.” She shifted. T.K.O. barely heard the movement; his ears had started ringing a few minutes ago, give or take how skewed his perception of time was at the moment. “I know you don’t want us babying you, and that makes more sense after this class with the whole ‘insulting and feeling worthless business,’ but that doesn’t change how weird you’ve been acting today. I...haven’t known you that long, but I don’t think this is normal.”

T.K.O. scoffed and rubbed his eyes. “I’m fine.”

“Right.” Larch didn’t move. T.K.O. squinted at the spot she should have been—still nothing. He felt her pat his head and finally the uneven thud and clack of her footsteps moving to the door. “I’ll get Foxtail.”

“What? No!” T.K.O. lunged in her general direction, but only ended up falling flat on his face again. He jerked his head up and watched the vague outline of the door swinging shut. “No. Stop.” he whispered, curling into himself. “I’m fine. It’s...okay...”

———

“—is a big deal! What if this is permanent? We don’t even know why it happened!”

K.O. blinked awake and quickly shut his eyes against a bright light. A hand was running through his hair and a comparatively scratchy blanket was wrapped around his shoulders. The static that had been overtaking his body had left without a trace, leaving his senses blissfully silent.

“Oh, Foxtail, I’m sure it’s alright! You said he’s been like this before, hasn’t he?”

“Yeah, when T.K.O. was an uncontrollable force with no motivation other than to destroy!”

“Huh?” K.O. focused on Foxtail, who was pacing in front of him. She looked up at him in shock. “When did he—”

“K.O.!” She ran over to him and knelt down, putting her hands on his shoulders. “You’re okay! Are you okay?”

K.O. rubbed his head. “I think so?”

Foxtail gently pulled his wrist away from his head. K.O. looked up at her in confusion. “Are you sure?” she said. “Nothing feels off?”

“No? Why would...” K.O.’s eyes wandered down to the arm she was holding and he sucked in a breath—the wristband was a glaringly bright scarlet. He pulled his hand away ran his tongue over his canines. They were even duller than earlier. “What?”

“Yeah. That.” Foxtail rubbed the back of her neck. “We figured that wasn’t normal. Greyman was trying to figure out what’s going on, but that was a little difficult when you were unconscious, apparently.”

“Okay.” K.O. gulped. “Does this have to do with me feeling wrong earlier?”

“I’d be surprised if it didn’t.”

“Oh.”

She opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. “I’ll go get Greyman. He just left.”

K.O. nodded. The door shut with a quiet click. He glanced down at the the bright red of his wristbands and curled into a ball, leaning on the warm person beside him.

_Wait. Person?_

“This is quite the adventure, isn’t it?” Professor Sunshine said, her face in full sun form.

“Um. Yeah. It’s...something.”

She ruffled his hair. “I’m sure it’ll be okay. Greyman will know what’s going on.”

In the same moment, Greyman came in with a determined expression, holding a small scanner in his arms. He rolled over to K.O., who did his best to relax given the situation.

Greyman raised the scanner to K.O.’s chest. “Hm. Let’s see...” It whirred for a tense moment before chiming. “Well. The good news is that nothing has changed—your energy levels are still unstable.”

K.O. leaned forward “Still? Changed? How did you know what it was like before?”

“I scanned you before you woke up, but the scanner couldn’t decipher exactly what was wrong.” He scrolled down the screen. “You are low on turbonic and mental energy and unusually high in thermal energy, though the latter is probably because Sunshine has been sitting beside you for the past hour.” He shook his head. “However, that doesn’t explain the first two. Is there any reason you can think that you might be low on those?”

K.O. tapped his fingers together. “Well, I’ve been teaching the classes as T.K.O. Would that do it?”

“Oh! Yes!” He tapped at the screen at light-speed. Foxtail peeked over his shoulder to look at it. “Your body must be compensating for the over-use of turbonic energy by reverting to this other form. It is to my understanding that you do not use turbonic energy like this?”

“Um, not without T.K.O.’s help, no.”

“Interesting. Can you feel his presence?”

“Huh?” K.O. cocked his head. “We’re not separate anymore.”

Greyman stroked his beard. “So you feel normal, then?”

“Um, I guess it’s quiet? Usually there’s something there. An energy. Or an inter..interaction? Kind of?” Greyman was looking at him expectantly. K.O. shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know. It just feels really quiet and heavy and empty right now, I guess. If that makes sense.”

Greyman tapped at his screen again. “Does it feel anything like it does when you are in your turbonic form?”

“Does it feel like—?” K.O. furrowed his eyebrows. “I dunno.”

“You—What do you mean you don’t know?”

He shrugged and tried to hide his face in his shoulders. “I don’t—I remember that I went turbo, but I don’t remember what happened. I—um. I remember a little bit of today’s class...if that makes a difference.”

“Your wristbands were magenta instead of purple when that student brought you to me,” Foxtail said. “Your must have had some control.”

“Yes, well, you’ll need to rest in this form while your energy levels go back to normal. I suspect your mental energy drop was because whatever you did today put a strain on your mind.” He handed the scanner to Foxtail, who placed it on a nearby counter. “If you continue to teach your classes in your turbonic form, you’ll likely need to rest after every class.”

“Okay.” K.O. took a deep breath and stood up. “I guess I can do that.”

Greyman nodded. “That should be all then, unless there’s anything else I need to know.” K.O. shook his head. “Alright. Call if anything else weird happens. I’ll see you for tutoring tomorrow!” He turned and wheeled himself out of the room.

Sunshine gasped and clasped her hands together. “We should make pumpkin spice cocoa! Oh, that’s always such a delight to have when you’ve been stuck studying one algebra formula for an hour!”

“I don’t have algebra.”

“Right, of course. Pre-algebra?”

“Um...I think so?”

Sunshine gave him a near-blinding smile. “Well. We’ll make cocoa for the battle ahead, and then we’ll smash that pre-algebra so hard it won’t know what hit it!” She pumped her fist in the air.

A smile of his own crept onto K.O.’s face. He giggled and mimicked her movement. “Yeah we will!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! I’m back! It’s been a bit and a half. I’m not writing the chapters of this fic in order, so there might be big stretches of time between chapters for a little while, especially since the next few should be longer than these last two, but I don’t have any plans to abandon this fic. I have too much planned out to do that.
> 
> I’ve also got a close estimate of how many chapters there will be! This might go up or down, but I think it’s as close as I’m gonna get for now.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a lot of chapters planned for this, so depending on how it’s received, there’s a chance this will be updating for a while. If not...well. I hope you enjoy what I do manage to put out.


End file.
